1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process and an apparatus for producing packages for drinking straws, and more particularly to a process and appartus for continuously producing consecutive, spaced individual packages for drinking straws.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a known construction (European Patent Specification No. 22,595), the straws to be packaged fall from a supply funnel located at a higher point through a vertical shaft onto a lower bucket wheel which serves as a straw-separating device and which has straw receptacles arranged at a distance from one another and taking the form of grooves extending approximately parallel to the axis of rotation. A conveyor roller with straw-receiving grooves arranged at the same distance from one another is assigned to the abovementioned bucket wheel, the receiving grooves each being connected to a vacuum source. One of the two packaging foils is guided over the conveyor roller. At the same time, the foil is pressed by means of an appropriately rotating tool into the straw-receiving grooves and fixed in these by means of suction air. The drinking straws are then fed by the first-mentioned bucket wheel into the grooves provided with the foil. The other packaging foil, which is guided over a sealing roller assigned to the conveyor roller, is subsequently applied. The two foils are then sealed in a known way so as to enclose the straws arranged at a distance from one another.
A disadvantage of the known construction is, on the one hand, the vertical fall shaft. This is the main cause of low productivity, because the drinking straws do not fall down the shaft sufficiently quickly as a result of electrostatic charging and their own light weight. Moreover, blockage of the fall shaft by drinking straws lying across it cannot be prevented in a reliable way.
On the other hand, it is relatively expensive to fix the one packaging foil in the receiving grooves of the conveyor roller, and a considerable suction power has to be exerted to keep the foil in its correct shape in the grooves.